INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Year B - Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
2 KINGS 5:1-14. The healing of Naaman, commander of the army of Aram (Syria) is a simple story about the power of Israel's God to make a sick man well. The Israelite slave girl, the kings of Aram and Israel, and Elijah the prophet are mere players in a dramatic legend. The story
poignantly tells of the divine willingness to save.
Does God heal even the most desperate cases of disease like leprosy? Should we read such biblical stories of healing literally? Instead we should recognize the difference between curing a disease and healing which may not end a cure. A cure disposes of the symptoms; healing makes the person whole, but may not cure.
PSALM 30. The psalmist praises God for saving him from death in a critical illness. After at first expressing a certain overconfidence about God's favour, he realizes how much he owes to God for answering his prayer of distress.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:24-27. Here Paul used metaphors from sports - running and boxing - to point out the significance of physical, moral and spiritual self-discipline. He wrote this with the intensity of one totally committed to his mission, but still wholly dependent on the grace of God.
MARK 1:40-45. This story of Jesus healing a leper brings out the same issues as our Old Testament lesson. In those days lepers were regarded as outcasts totally isolated from family and community. Jesus' compassion not only cured his disease, but restored him to his community. Now healed, the man immediately spread the good news widely despite Jesus' warning not to reveal who had performed the miracle. Mark told the story as if Jesus wanted the man to experience the love of God but keep his identity as the Messiah secret.
A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS
2 KINGS 5:1-14. The healing of Naaman, commander of the army of Aram (Syria) is a simple story about the wondrous power of Israel's God to make a sick man well. The Israelite slave girl, and the kings of Aram and Israel are mere players in a dramatic legend. Elisha the prophet, however, stands out as a wonder worker par excellence. Yet the story also poignantly tells of the divine willingness to save.
Scholars believe that this is one of a series of taleScholars believe that this story is part of a series gathered about 750 BCE and grouped in what is called the Elisha cycle. This tale contains both realistic data about developing concepts of Yahweh side by side with traces of more primitive understanding. No clear monotheism has yet displaced the henotheism where every nation or tribe has its own particular deity. The superior, if not supreme, power of Yahweh does stand out nonetheless. Of particular note is the reference in vs. 1 that Yahweh had given victory to Syria. This represents an early concept of Yahweh as Lord of history, a view which became of particular importance in the prophetic tradition beginning with Amos, Micah and Isaiah.
Another important detail of the story identified Naaman as a very wealthy and powerful man. That did not prevent him from being wretched beyond words because he was a leper. That disease would have made him a total outcast had it been widely known. He stood to lose everything. So he had to take action to prevent his fall from power and favour. The identification of the maid of Naaman's wife as a captive taken during a cross-border raid adds another touch of realism. In the Golan Heights where Israel and Syria meet, that would be entirely possible now as then.
The simple words of the Israelite maid not only heighten the drama, but come almost as a divine oracle. It took an order from the king, however, for Naaman to follow the girl's plaintive counsel. Despite its excessive worth, the gift he brought to Israel did not constitute a tribute so much as a peace offering. Syria and Israel, although of Semetic origins, have been enemies from time immemorial. The gift and the letter from the king of Syria was greeted with only more suspicion from the unnamed king of Israel. No wonder negotiations between these two nations today are so difficult.
Naaman received Elisha's directions as nothing less than an insult. The general's servants, however, knew how great was the danger for their master and themselves. They persuaded him to follow the prophet's instructions. When he obeyed, he was cured.
The story raises some important issues for any congregation today. Does God heal even the most desperate cases of disease like leprosy or cancer? Should we read such biblical stories of healing literally? Instead we should recognize the difference between curing a disease and healing which may not end a cure. A cure disposes of the symptoms; healing makes the person whole, but may not cure. The rest of the story, not included in this reading, might be interpreted as an analogy about human greed and medical systems that depend on profit.
PSALM 30. The psalmist praises Yahweh for saving PSALM 30. The psalmist praises God for him from death in a critical illness. The sincerity of his thanksgiving comes through clearly in vss. 2-5. Not only does he recognize the divine mercy that restored him to health, he also acknowledged Yahweh's anger and rejoices that it is short-lived.
Then he goes on in vss. 6-10 to tell exactly what sin had caused his sickness. He had been overconfident about God's favour (vs. 6) But suddenly he finds that Yahweh had gone from his life. Though expressed somewhat euphemistically, he realizes that sin brings isolation from Yahweh. That is true in any age.
Normally a lament does not appear as part of a hymn of thanksgiving. In vss. 8-10 we find the actual words of his cry of distress. Quickly he moves on to express how much he owes to God for answering his prayer and ends his hymn of praise in a commitment always to be thankful.
On the surface this psalm appears as a purely individual hymn of thanksgiving. It probably dates from the post-exilic period when the idea of God's punitive dealings (vs. 5) with humans received considerable attention, particularly in the wisdom literature. In the 2nd century BCE, however, this
psalm came into liturgical use for the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus now celebrated at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:24-27. Spectator sports played an important part in the life of every Graeco-Roman city. To Jews such games were anathema because they were frequently associated with the worship of pagan deities, especially emperor worship. Athletes, many of whom were itinerant professionals, would often compete naked, equally abhorent to Jews. Gambling on the outcome of the contests would have been as addictive then as now. A great deal of brutality and bloodshed also occurred during these games. Corinth would have had all the necessary facilities for every kind of sport and the citizens would have been greatly enthused about such entertainment.
All of this makes Paul's metaphors in this passage quite surprising. Competition for the loyalties of embryonic Christians must have given the apostolic church considerable difficulty, just as we find sport doing in our own day. In an article on religion in the Macropedia volume of Encyclopedia Britannica, the late Wilfrid Cantwell Smith, then professor of world religion at Harvard University, drew just such a parallel. He cited Sunday afternoon football as the liturgical worship of North American culture complete with its high priests, accolytes and worshiping congregations.
Here Paul used metaphors from two sports - running aPaul used the metaphor of two sports - running and boxing - to point out the significance of physical, moral and spiritual self-discipline. He wrote this with the intensity of one totally committed to his mission. Not one to sit idly by believing that God would do everything for him in God's own good time, Paul used these metaphors to urge the Corinthians on in their moral and spiritual struggle.
He laid particular emphasis on his two examples from popular sports. No aimless jogging or shadow boxing for him (vs. 26). When he says, "I punish my body and enslave it" (vs. 27) he referred to the hard discipline of training rather than a masochistic routine. He used this as a means of encouraging the Corinthians to maintain their discipline of practicing their faith just as
he also did so as to be effective in proclaiming the gospel. At the end of the day, the prize would not be a laurel wreath with which victorious athletes were crowned, but eternal life with God and Jesus Christ (vs. 25).
MARK 1:40-45. This story of Jesus healing a leper brings out the same issues as our Old Testament lesson. In those days lepers were regarded as outcasts totally isolated from family and community. Leviticus 13 gives extensive directions for diagnosing and dealing with the different manifestations of skin disease including leprosy. Not all skin afflictions were true leprosy or what we now know as the bacterially caused Hansen's Disease.
But in those days almost all serious skin conditions would have been diagnosed as leprosy.
In ancient Israel touching a leper involved more than the mere risk of contagion. According to the Levitical Code lepers were among the most unclean people. Anyone who touched them became immediately unclean too. The same kind of ostracism, usually based on fear rather than religious conviction, still occurs in parts of the world where lepers do not receive adequate medical
treatment.
Jesus' compassion not only cured this man's disease, but restored him to his community. At the same time Jesus instructed him to say nothing to anyone, but to show himself to the priest and offer the appropriate sacrifice for his cleansing. These directions could be evidence of either Jesus' own religious scruples or of Mark's theme of representing Jesus as the Messiah in hiding.
He wanted the man to be fully acceptable in his community. Only a priest could validate his cure. Mark told the story as if Jesus wanted the man to experience the compassionate love of God but to keep his identity as the Messiah secret.
Now healed, the man immediately spread the good newNow healed, the man immediately spread the good news widely despite Jesus' warning not to reveal who had performed the miracle. That affected how Jesus' carried on his ministry in that town. He had to retreat to the countryside to continue teaching. Nonetheless, the crowds still gathered "from every quarter."
Spontaneous healing still causes much clamour in health circles. A news report heralds the discovery of a more effective treatment or drug for some distressing medical condition. Research scientists must take pains to advise the general public of the limitations of their discovery or the inconclusiveness of the treatment. People are attracted by their hope for relief from the symptoms of their disease. But however effective in dealing with these, the supposed cure may not be healing. No matter what their disease, not everyone can be cured.
Healing is a spiritual event and may not include the remission of symptoms. This challenges the modern church community to deal with the spiritual issues that isolate diseased persons from friends and loved ones, and from God, while also helping them to confront the physical suffering their diseases may entail.
My late sister lived with cancer for fully one-third of her nearly eighty years. She was a former nurse and knew all the medical details about her condition. Every Sunday she was in her pew at her local church and with another sister gave leadership to an elderly women's group. As the family historian, she kept in touch with relatives all over North America and in Britain. She regularly visited the cancer clinic in her city for a further examination. Cheerful to the point of being blasé about her disease, she handled expressions of concern with a saucy, "I'm not dead yet!" She was not cured, but she was spiritually alive and died in my arms just two months short of her eightieth birthday. But she was healed.
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